- Event
- Conference
Ethics for Innovation: How Can Ethical Innovation Succeed in the 21st Century?
Conference of the German Commission for UNESCO on the occasion of its 75th anniversary
Thu, September 24, 2026 10:00 am – 12:30 pm CEST
- Location
- Media Theater
Artificial intelligence, quantum, neuro- and biotechnologies are often already in use before the rules governing their application have been established. Who decides which technological developments are desirable and where limits should be drawn? On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the German Commission for UNESCO will discuss these questions at the ZKM – with experts in technology assessment, philosophy of law and international cooperation.
The conference is being held in cooperation with the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) and the ZKM in Karlsruhe, a UNESCO City of Media Arts.
Whether new technologies strengthen human rights and dignity and contribute to environmental protection, or have ambivalent or even harmful consequences, depends both on how they are designed and on how and in what context they are used.
However, understanding technological developments, shaping them ethically and governing them politically is becoming increasingly difficult. Technological progress is accelerating, companies operate globally and are gaining influence, while data and value chains transcend national borders. At the same time, governments’ capacity to regulate is coming under pressure – for example through calls for less regulation and greater willingness to take risks.
Germany has a strong research landscape and numerous institutions dedicated to scientific policy advice and technology assessment – including ITAS at KIT and the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag. Yet these structures, too, face challenges: How can their findings have an impact on society, and how can they be translated into practice?
Moreover, many questions arising from technological change can no longer be addressed at the national level alone. The safe and ethical use of data or the market power of a small number of major technology corporations require international consensus-building. In recent years, UNESCO has demonstrated that shared ethical principles can be formulated at the international level – in 2021 with its Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, and in 2025 with the Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology.
What future scenarios are currently emerging in relation to new technologies, and what do they mean for our lives? What possibilities are there for shaping them socially and politically? The morning brings together different perspectives: from technology assessment and quantum technologies to the role of art in societal debate and the question of how ethical guidance can be translated into political and regulatory practice.
Programme
| Moderation: Jeannine Hausmann and Dr. Maximilian Müngersdorff, German Commission for UNESCO | ||
| 10am - 10:15am | Dr. Roman Luckscheiter, Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO Dr. Frank Mentrup, Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe (or representative) N.N, | Welcome |
| 10:15am - 10:30am | Flash Poll Flash poll among the audience on new technologies in their own everyday lives | |
| 10:30am - 10:55am | Constanze Scherz, Deputy Director of ITAS | Finding Direction in Times of Technological ChangeModern societies possess ever-increasing amounts of knowledge and more powerful technologies, yet at the same time they are experiencing growing uncertainty. What role can technology assessment play in this situation? Drawing on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Nightingale,” Constanze Scherz explains how technology assessment helps to contextualize uncertainties, structure societal debates, and strengthen our ability to learn and shape the future. |
| 10:55am - 11:15am | Prof. Dr. Matthias Kettemann, Chair of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law at the University of Innsbruck | Innovation on the Horizon: New Ethical Questions Using Quantum Technologies as an ExampleQuantum technologies promise profound changes for science, business and society. At the same time, they raise new ethical questions whose significance is only gradually becoming apparent. The lecture introduces the fundamentals of these technologies, examines their potential societal impacts and explains why early ethical guidance and international processes of consensus-building – for example within the framework of UNESCO – are of central importance. |
| 11:15am - 11:45am | Exchanging Perspectives on Ethics for InnovationThe coffee break offers an opportunity to explore selected questions and controversies surrounding new technologies in small groups. At various discussion stations, participants can freely engage in conversation, exchange different perspectives, and share their own experiences. Each station focuses on a specific question or topic—such as the role of politics in shaping technological developments or the concerns and hopes people associate with new technologies. | |
| 11:45am - 12pm | Margit Rosen, Head of Collections, Archives & Research at ZKM | In the Space of Possibility. Art Institutions as Sites of Reflection on TechnologyEthical orientation does not emerge solely within expert committees, but also through engagement with works of art. Their strength lies in their ambiguity: artworks demand interpretation and thus require us to take a position of our own. They address questions of technological development through sensory experience rather than concepts and explore futures for which no rules yet exist. The contribution asks what art institutions can contribute to public debate on new technologies and where the limits of such expectations lie – for example, when art is expected merely to generate acceptance. |
| 12pm - 12:30pm | Dr. Lutz Möller, Deputy Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO Michaela Evers-Woelk, Research Director “Health and Well-being”, Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment Dr. Pauline Riousset, Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag | Ethics and Regulation - How Can Consensus on Ethics Be Achieved?Who actually decides which technological developments are socially desirable and where limits should be drawn? The panel discussion examines how ethical guidance for new technologies emerges – and how it can be translated into political and regulatory practice. Representatives from ethics, technology assessment and international cooperation will discuss innovative approaches to ethical frameworks, cooperation between different stakeholders, and the importance of national and international processes of consensus-building for shaping technology. |
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